Today was eventful!

It is late here, we just got home from a great evening out with most of the mission staff.  We don't get to do that very often and we had a great time.  Here is a quick look at our day ...

Today started off early and for the most part normal.  After breakfast, the kids started school, Jankie started working around the yard and Mark headed to the mission farm to work on the bakkie (William was going to help him replace the clutch)

The guys have been working on vehicles 3 days this week.  Sharyn provided lunch on Tuesday and Debbie took care of lunch yesterday.  Mark asked me to take care of lunch for today.  It was colder today, so I thought some soup would be nice.  I decided to start making the soup around 10:30 and then my plan was to take it to the farm for the guys around 12:30.   At 11 am out electricity went off.  I waited 30 minutes and then decided I better make a plan.  I was thankful that we had a gas stove in our Mozambique supplies and we had a propane tank with gas left in it from last winter.  I got Jankie to help me hook it up and we were back in business.  I am so thankful that we have a small garden with a few vegetables left in it, including lettuce, so I quickly put a salad together.  Mark called and said he and William had to come in to town to get some parts so they would just come by the house and eat.  I sent Sharyn a message to join us since she was across the street working at the church. 

After the soup finished cooking on the gas stove I was able to make some grilled cheese sandwiches using Sharyn's pan that I have had since November ... oops, guess I should return it!

 

Right before lunch I saw Jankie on the side yard studying the palm trees.  We have talked for awhile about taking these out because the roots are bad and they are really close to our lapa.  Well he decided today was the day to start.  He had taken a rope and tied it around the tree and attached it to the fence.  I was just praying it would not tear down the fence!  He started chopping a

 

 

  and the fence is still standing!

 

After the tree came down the guys showed up for a quick lunch.  

Since the power on our street was still out and Sharyn couldn't get any work at the church done, we decided I would take her home and the guys would go collect a part that was ready and then head to the farm.  As we were leaving our house, Sharyn got a call that Autozone had some prizes they are donating towards our Golf Day on Saturday and they were ready for us to pick up.  So we stopped by there on the way.  There was nowhere to park, so I pulled over and blocked a few cars in and said "I just do like everyone else does and wait here with my hazards on"  Sharyn got out and headed in.  A few minutes later, Brit and I heard this loud noise and looked up and our car was smoking.  I quickly turned off the engine and called Mark.  He and William headed over to sort out the problem  Not a bad place to break down ... right in front of the Autozone.  Although they didn't have the part in stock and they had to send a worker on a motorcycle to the other shop quickly.  Our day was quickly going away and we had a missions staff night out planned for 5:30.  Since it was 3:30 and our bakkie was still torn apart, William and Sharyn headed to the farm so William could work on the bakkie.  Sharyn took Darren some of the lunch from our house, which by this time was cold soup!

I needed to stop and get some medicine for Luke on the way home and since our Dr office was across the street and they have a pharmacy, I was able to get my errand taken care of while we waited.

William busy taking off the part.  

Not sure what you call this but it connects the hose and something else and it blew. 

here is the replacement part

 

Mark putting the new part on and putting things back together.

added the antifreeze and we were off to the farm

  We had noticed when we were coming back from Zimbabwe that the bakkie was starting to act a little funny.  The guys talked about it and thought it might be the clutch.  You can see that the clutch really did need to be replaced.  The guys are headed into Mozambique on Monday and they said after looking at this, they would have had a problem on the road for sure if they didn't replace it.  We praise the Lord for His perfect timing.

I had no idea how much you had to take apart just to get to the clutch.

 Brit was checking it all out.

Time was running out so they decided to stop and finish the job in the morning.  It took a little bit to get cleaned up.  

 

William cleans up pretty good. 

When we were finished, Brit drove us home from the farm in the Golf.  This was her first time to drive us from the farm.  She did a great job.  

All in all a great day, busy - yes, money spent on car parts -yes, thankful for friends - YES! Praising the Lord for HIS goodness in our lives.  Since the power was off Brit was not able to do any work on her Economics class but she will work extra hard tomorrow.  The electricity came back on at 7 pm tonight.